The Lonely Immortals
by helloprilly
Summary: **Story on indefinite hiatus. Muse has fallen off a cliff. - Two unwilling immortals find each other after centuries on earth and an unlikely friendship ensues. Their only connection, the alien who made them both. The man from the future and the woman from the past, both locked forever out of time. Jack Harkness/Ashildr Rated T for now, that may change down the road.
1. Chapter 1

_Just a fun idea when I first saw the woman who lived. Not sure how long this little ficlet will go for, but I figured it would be fun for two accidental immortals to meet each other._

* * *

The sharp wind was blowing off Cardiff bay, causing the birds to dance uncertainly on the breeze before winging off in search of a more sheltered landing site.

The woman walked across the square, her hand held her coat tightly closed as the wind tried to tear it open. It was late autumn in Wales and the storm clouds were racing across the sky, signaling the onset of another storm.

She held a crumpled piece of paper in her hand, though she had long since memorized what it said. It held a name, address and directions but nothing more. She paused when she came to stand by a shining steel fountain, the spray misting around the base before settling in a damp pool around it.

She found herself suddenly assaulted by nerves, the fact that her search that had lasted for so long was finally nearing an end filled her stomach with butterflies the size of eagles. She didn't know what to expect when she walked through that door, and though the years had tempered her somewhat she still had not lost all of her wild ways.

Everything that she had learned of this organization called Torchwood told her that they would know of her presence in the square almost as soon as she head entered it, but most likely would think she was merely a tourist pausing before the stunning fountain. She knew that they wouldn't start to worry until she made her way into their little shop.

Her fingers tightened once more around that little piece of paper, before she lifted her head high and made her way across the square and down the little boardwalk that ended in the shop that she was seeking. With a final deep breath, she opened the door and quickly stepped inside.

She paused to let her eyes roam over the cramped interior of the shop, the counter was unoccupied for the moment though there was a little rack of travel brochures against one wall. It wasn't much of a tourist shop, but it seemed pretty obvious that the intent of the store was not to do a thriving business.

The bell above the door had signaled her arrival and it was only a matter of moments before a rather handsome man in a dark gray suit with a smart red button down shirt came out from what was obviously a back room. He was the first sign that this shop was not all it was cracked up to be, though most people wouldn't even notice. He was far too clean cut, and the suit far more expensive than a simple shop worker should be able to afford, not unless he was a rich kid slumming it with the working class.

"Can I help you? Are you looking for a boat tour, or maybe a map of Cardiff's historical treasures?" His voice was low and cultured, his eyes moving over her from head to toe in a rapid scan that she knew was cataloguing everything even as he tried to interest her in a bit of nonsense.

She had played this game many times in the past, she was a master of it actually especially when the target was particularly easy on the eye. She decided to play along for a few moments to get his guard down, before she revealed her true purpose. Besides she still hadn't figured out where the entrance to Torchwood's secret base was hidden, most likely it was in the back room where this man had been waiting.

"Oh, I don't know. Historical treasures bore me really, so many old, moldering pieces of metal and stone that some historian somewhere said once belonged to a king or a poet or some other equally boring person." She'd always found that the bored little girl voice worked the best, made her seem less threatening when she was trying to dig for information. Ten thousand hours to master a skill. One hundred thousand to become the best that ever was.

His smile was engaging even as he reached over for another pamphlet on Cardiff's night life, though his eyes still followed her every move. Oh he was good, she thought. He was obviously well trained, though he was enjoying the playful flirting.

"Well there are some good night spots in Cardiff as well if you're looking for a good time. One right across the bay that has actually just opened that might do the trick."

She leaned over the counter presumably to look at the brochure he was holding open for her, ruby red lips leaning close to his ear as she whispered. "Actually, I've changed my mind. There is one particular historical artifact I would like to see in Cardiff."

The young man jerked back at the whisper of her breath against his neck, his eyes wary at the sudden intent look on her face. "Which one would that be? Maybe we have a brochure for it here?"

She laughed as he continued the game, oh this could be so much fun and she could easily wrap him around her finger if she tried, though he was not the one that she was aching to finally meet. Now he was only standing in her way. "I highly doubt you have a brochure on it, though with what I've read about it anything is possible." She had his attention now, and as his hand moved towards a button on the underside of his counter, she just shook her head with a sultry laugh. "I'm looking for Captain Jack Harkness and I think he will be very interested in meeting me."

The man's hand continued its progress towards the panic button, his face completely impassive except for a slight tick at the corner of his left eye. "I'm sorry, I don't recognize that name. You must have the wrong shop."

Her brow arched towards the hand that was nearly at the button, which had now paused in its tracks. "Then why are you about to hit a panic button? This shop doesn't exactly look like it has much, not enough for a robber to get much out of should they even bother, so why have a panic button in the first place?"

She continued to lean against the counter, her chin steepled on her raised hands as she eyed his every movement. She knew he was armed, though his suit jacket hid it very well and she would rather not have to deal with gunshots at this moment so she decided to try to put him at ease. "I'm not here to harm him, though from what I've discovered that's impossible anyways. We're kindred souls so to speak, Mr….?"

The young man pulled his hand back up onto the counter so that she could keep an eye on it, but the interest in his eyes was unmistakable as was the mistrust. "You seem to know an awful lot about him." He answered, unwilling to give her an inch and so refusing to answer the question that she had left hanging.

She shook her head with a soft laugh. "Tsk, tsk. Young people in this century are so very rude."

His eyes widened like saucers at her words, his hand reaching behind his back before he paused at the look in her eyes. "Just pick up the phone and call him. Tell him the Doctor sent me."

It seemed she had said the right thing to at least get him to pick up the phone, his eyes never leaving her body as he pressed an intercom button in the center of the phone. She stood there watching him with a bored expression on her face, betraying none of the excitement or terror that was ripping through her at this moment. "Jack, there's a woman here who claims that the Doctor sent her to you."

He looked her over once more before turning his attention back to the phone. "She's younger, dark hair and rather petite." A pause. "No she doesn't look like any that we know."

He was silent for a few moments more before he nodded. "Right away. What was your name Ma'am?"

"He wouldn't recognize it, but tell him I am called Ashildr."


	2. Chapter 2

After the young man had relayed that information into the phone, he quickly hung up the phone and came around the desk. "My name is Ianto Jones, Ma'am. The Captain has asked that I take you to him right away. I'm sorry but I'm required to search you."

She just arched an eyebrow up at him before lifting her arms up high. "Do what you must." He'd never find all the weapons she had hidden anyways, she'd been hiding weapons in unlikely spots for centuries.

He was quick and thorough, turning up two knives and one small pistol before he seemed satisfied. She just smiled at him before he turned and flicked the open sign on the door to closed and pressed a button behind the counter that slid open a secret panel in the wall opposite the entrance.

Not exactly the most ideal location for a secret passageway as it was nearly in plain view of the door, but she supposed beggars couldn't be choosers. As Ianto walked past her, she shrugged her shoulders just slightly to adjust the tiny derringer that nestled between her shoulder blades. People always missed that one, especially with the voluminous cloaks that she favored from times gone by.

Her gaze was always moving, cataloguing everything she saw in the passageway and on the lift ride down into what she presumed was Torchwood's secret base. Ianto made sure she stepped out of the lift first before he followed her and carefully swiped his pass over the entry panel next to a large blast door.

The blaring of an alarm echoed through the large space beyond as the door slid open, and Ashildr stepped into the domain of the man for which she had been searching for nearly five centuries. The base wasn't much to look at though it was filled with very impressive tech on several levels, plus it boasted an incredibly well stocked weapons room just down a ramp to her right.

The steel column from up above obviously was a continuation of the fountain in the main square and allowed her to get her bearings. There was only one other person in the base, he stood up on a landing several steps away, his hands on his hips openly displaying the gun at his side.

She held her breath when she finally saw his face, it was the face she had seen in so many photos of her search for the Doctor over the decades since technology had allowed such searches. He hadn't aged a day since the photos of him in the late 19th century when he had first appeared on Torchwood's roster and though those files were classified at the highest level, she had had no trouble hacking their system on a regular basis. She had become a master hacker rather early in the computer era, and her skills only continued to grow with every passing year.

She had chosen her clothing very carefully, making sure that she looked just modern enough to pass through the world above, but with some old world touches that only historians would ever recognize. She saw him take her attire into account, the soft arching of one brow the only indication that he was intrigued.

"I don't know the name Ashildr, and it doesn't show up in any of the Doctor's files that we have on record. What kind of con are you trying to pull?"

She laughed lightly as she stepped away from Ianto's side, her steps gliding sure and unhurried across the landing and up the steps to stand directly in front of him. "I assure you Mr. Harkness, I am attempting no con." She stated with all the authority she had retained from her days masquerading as the Lady Me, if he was impressed than his loutish American ways didn't let him show it.

"You obviously know enough about me to know that you can't do much harm to me, and at least you know the Doctor's name, so I'll give you five minutes to explain yourself before I decide whether I let you stay or throw you out."

He stepped back and pointed imperiously towards an office that was tucked back into a corner of the level they were standing on, the dingy doors in desperate need of cleaning but they would afford the two of them a modicum of privacy.

She looked up at him and with a gracious smile, a lady deigning to grant a peasant a request, she swept across the intervening space and settled herself in a chair facing the desk.

Jack just shook his head, though his heart was pounding with fear that this person meant the Doctor harm. If she knew enough to know about Torchwood and that Jack was hard to kill, or impossible to kill, then she knew enough to be of a danger to the Doctor. He had to find out just what she knew and then he had to warn that crazy Time Lord that there was someone on earth that had found out about him and that she had come looking.

"Ianto, get several doses of retcon ready just in case. I don't know if I trust her, though there's something about her that has piqued my curiosity. Also get us coffee, bring in the cream and sugar just in case then leave us be. I can't get her to talk if she thinks she's being watched, but make sure you're recording everything that goes on in my office just in case we need it later." He paused with a distant look on his face, wondering why the sense of urgency had settled in the pit his stomach but he decided to try to find out more before he gave the Doctor a call. "I'm not sure she doesn't actually mean the Doctor harm and isn't trying to use me to get to him."

Ianto let his gaze flick from Jack to the mysterious Ashildr before he nodded. "Just be careful, Jack."

The answering grin was brilliant. "Hey, I'm always careful! Besides, I have ways to get information out of beautiful women."

Ianto just rolled his eyes before he turned to the monitors beside them and typed in a few codes to key up the cameras hidden in Jack's office.

Jack turned back to his office and with a deep breath, slowly made his way towards it. She sat with her back to the entrance like she didn't have a worry in the world, she hadn't turned her head or moved a muscle since she sat though he knew she had already catalogued every nuance of his messy work space. Some days it was just harder to be tidy then others. He closed the doors behind him, wincing when they squealed on slightly rusty hinges.

"You're not what I expected Captain Harkness."

He sat down behind his desk, leaning forward so that he could gaze into her dark eyes intently. "And just what did you expect, Ashildr. IF that is your real name?"

She pursed her lips looking at him, her eyes dancing with mirth before she responded. "Someone a little more… cultured I suppose, for an immortal anyways."

Jack's thighs tensed beneath the desk, ready to jump to his feet though the rest of his body gave away nothing of his tension, his gaze melted into that teasing flirty smile that he knew had melted hearts for centuries. "Oh come on gorgeous, I am very cultured. I just don't always show it."

Ashildr smirked at the display, having been on the receiving end of those looks for far too many centuries to be fooled by it. "Hardly. I know your type, have known them many times over the years and you always think your pretty face can get you anything you want."

"Over the years? You don't look a day over 20."

She just grinned, a positively wicked grin before leaning back at the sound of the door opening and Ianto entered bearing a tray with two cups and a pot of coffee. He looked from Ashildr to Jack, unable to miss the tension between the two before he set the tray down on the desk and retreated from the office once more.

"I've been around Captain." She stated once she heard the click of the door closing.

"Why did he send you to me? What do you want?" Jack pressed, feeling that they could dance around each other for centuries without getting anything done.

"He didn't send me per se, but he did mention that he used to travel with you. Said that he had traveled with an immortal, and he said that people like you couldn't travel together because you lost perspective."

Jack sat back hard, his eyes widening as he heard almost the exact echoes of something the Doctor had once said to him. Something that had seemed like a lifetime ago now that he thought about it. No, she was guessing. She was on to something and had stumbled across it while digging for the Doctor.

"When was this? When do you meet him? Where? Why would he tell you about me?"

She leaned forward as if she had all the time in the world, her delicate hand reaching out for the steaming coffeepot before she tilted it to one cup and filled it, leaving two fingers of room before she set the pot aside. She let him see her deliberate actions and that she had no fear that he would poison her or that she just didn't care while she stirred in cream and sugar before taking the cup and leaning back in her seat, taking a sip with a contented sigh. "Trust a Welshman to always brew a great cup of coffee."

Jack just chuckled at the ploy, knowing she was toying with him but somewhat off guard as he was usually the one to be playing the games. "Ianto is good at a lot of things."

"Yes, he was very observant up in your little shop. Never quite let his guard down even though I did give him my best shot."

Jack's grin was positively cruel. "You're not his type."

Her lips turned down into a playful little moue, the cup resting against her mouth for a moment before she set it aside with a sigh. "The Doctor told me this in a tavern after we had journeyed together for a brief time."

Jack's brows furrowed at her comment, the feeling in the pit of his stomach growing ever so slightly. "What did the Doctor look like?"

She made a face at that question before responding. "Older gentleman with silver hair and sunglasses. He had a companion that he called Clara, though she wasn't with him when he visited me the second time. I thought he had come back for me actually." She said in a moment of weakness. "I was wrong."

Jack's head was spinning when he heard her response, the name Clara had popped up a few times in the archives though it had been with incarnations different than the Doctor that he currently knew, the one that was properly in line with his time stream. Those incarnations hadn't fit any of the Doctor's previous timelines and Torchwood and Unit were positive those companions had to be from his future incarnations which he had chosen to keep away from the agencies that so carefully tracked him. The fact that Ashildr knew this future companion's name settled some of the doubts in Jack's mind, but now he was truly curious as to this young woman with the sorrow that tinged so many of her words. "Why did you think he would come back for you Ashildr? He doesn't always do that."

She looked to him with the torment of centuries in her eyes, and suddenly he knew. "Because he abandoned me here Jack. He abandoned me without any guidance on what my life was supposed to become after him or how I was supposed to understand or survive what he did to me. I so desperately wanted to ask him why."

"Ashildr?" Jack asked very slowly, almost hesitantly. "When and where did you first meet the Doctor?"

Her eyes flashed to his, the memory that had been nearly forgotten for thirteen hundred years surged to the surface once again. "I met him in my village, Jack. In what modern day historians would term ninth century Scandinavia."

Jack sat thunderstruck, but she wasn't finished. "I then met him again in the 1600's when I thought he had come back for me, that's when he told me about you Jack. And I've been searching for you ever since."

There was a soft crash as the cup of coffee dropped from Jack's numb hands and shattered on the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack jumped when the cup slipped from his grasp, his slightly wild gaze flying to the shards of china that were even now scattering in all directions. Nearly thirteen hundred years, he thought wildly. She was saying she was nearly thirteen HUNDRED years old and yet never once had she popped up on ANYONE's radar.

The door opened quickly and Ianto's head poked in when he heard the crash of china breaking, his hand held tightly to his gun just in case it was needed.

Jack shook his head and shooed the concerned man out of the room with a rough motion, unwilling to break the strange silence that had settled between the two of them with unnecessary questions or explanations.

Ashildr for the most part merely sat there completely unruffled as if it were every day that she announced she was an immortal who had walked this planet for over a millennium. Her gaze never left his shocked face, though he could see an almost painful hunger leap into the tortured depths as finally she knew he believed her every word.

"My apologies, it's not every day that I meet another immortal. Especially not one so… intriguing as you." He leaned down and quickly cleaned up the broken pieces of china, grabbing several napkins off the tray to sop up the mess of coffee that had splattered on the floor before he tossed the whole sodden mess in the bin beside his desk.

"So you finally believe me?"

Jack paused in the middle of pulling himself up to his desk, his gaze suddenly going hooded though he couldn't stop the automatic response. "I'm still not sure that I do believe you, though you have some information that you otherwise shouldn't unless you actually did travel with him."

Ashildr just threw her head back and laughed. "I've been watching out for you Captain Jack Harkness. I know that's not your real name, I actually met the original bearer of that name. It would seem your real name has been lost in time, if you even remember it at all." She challenged, leaning forward so abruptly that Jack froze beneath that piercing gaze.

"I had nearly forgotten my name after only eight centuries. I had forgotten everything that had once meant something to me. I had lost too much, watched too many I had loved grow old and die over the centuries. It became easier to forget really, to find joy in the thrill of a momentary adrenaline rush since it was all meaningless in the end."

Jack took a deep breath, the endless sorrow in her words echoing his own feelings of remorse and loss that had only grown more unbearable as the years turned into centuries. He had nearly gone mad in that first century while he had waited for the right Doctor to finally show up. His endless deaths, each seemingly worse than the last, had taken a little bit more of his humanity from him until he found joy only in the basest debauchery, in the deepest bottle or in yet another pointless night with some random stranger. He had allowed himself to love a few times during that first century, but all too quickly he too had learned the hard lesson that love would be the thing that drove him completely insane if he allowed it.

Her words struck a deep chord within him, and suddenly Jack found himself wanting to know more. "How did it happen for you, Ashildr? Did you ask for it?"

She shook her head, the forced chuckle barely enough to dry the shimmer of tears in her eyes that was even now threatening to overflow. "No, Jack, I had no warning. I never even dreamed that such a thing was possible. He had used a chip from a… creature, an alien that had attacked our village to bring me back from the dead. He called it a repair kit of some sort which he then placed on my forehead."

She sighed softly, her eyes clouding with the memory that she had tried so hard to forget over the centuries. "It was absorbed into my body and is forever repairing me. He gave me a second one so that I could make a companion one day when I finally understood what it meant to be immortal. But he didn't stay to tell me any of this, he left it to my father to tell me when I finally regained consciousness. I didn't understand, Jack. I didn't understand any of it. He didn't stay to tell me that I would never grow old or die, that I would only be able to watch everything I had known and loved turn to dust."

Jack could feel himself getting angry with the Doctor once again, though this time on Ashildr's behalf. This future Doctor, however many regenerations down the road he was now still hadn't learned a damn thing from what he had done to Jack. What was worse was that he had done it to a woman who had no idea such a thing were possible except in the realm of dark magics and fairy tales, or the most foul of witchcrafts. He was of half a mind to call his Doctor and beat him senseless well into his next regeneration for being such a bloody idiot AGAIN.

Ashildr was watching Jack, watching the emotions play across his face and the tensing of his jaw as her story continued. She was hitting a nerve with him for some reason and she wasn't quite sure what it was, though she did remember the regret that she had briefly glimpsed in the Doctor's sad eyes all those centuries ago when they had both sat in that long forgotten tavern.

"It must have driven you mad in the beginning." Jack's voice cracked on the question, his own mind flooded with memories of the madness of his first few centuries of life, the madness that had nearly destroyed him when he had lain buried in the earth for nearly two millennia.

Ashildr could only nod tightly in response. "It did, Jack."

They both sat in silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts as the conversation brought up memories that both had tried for centuries to bury. Jack ached to know so much more about this woman, this one human who the Doctor had been compelled to save and see what he felt had made her so special. "It was an accident for me, the Doctor didn't even know it had happened until after it was over."

She gasped when she heard his admission, her fingers flexing involuntarily on the now cold cup of coffee in the only sign of her eagerness for more. "I'm sure you know about aliens and the Doctor's ship and what exactly it can do, since you've been studying anything to do with him for as long as you have."

"Yes, I do Jack though I must admit that I do not understand them. I begged to go with him five hundred years ago, he denied me so I had to learn what I could on my own."

Jack just nodded. "That seems to be his M.O." He leaned back in his chair, his hands running over his face even as he blew out a frustrated breath. "I can't believe I'm even contemplating telling you this, but since you're like me, it seems somehow oddly appropriate."

Ashildr let dark lashes fall to cover the greedy gleam of hunger for all that he had to tell her, though she couldn't conceal the quick flick of her tongue to moisten her lips. "I'm hardly going to be able to run and tell anyone what you're going to share. If I do, then it would draw too much unwanted attention to my own… unique situation."

Jack couldn't let go of the thought that he was messing with the timelines if he continued down this track, but for the first time in all his long existence here was someone who understood just what it meant to be burned by the Doctor like he had. Yes he had long since made his peace with the skinny alien, but that didn't mean that he still didn't have moments like now when he could quite happily throttle the Time Lord for what he had done.

"I'm over two thousand years old now, though I didn't experience many of those centuries in the same way that you did. I do however know exactly what you mean about the madness, about how everything fades away after a while and nothing, even dying, having much of a thrill anymore."

He'd managed to shock her with that statement, her lips parting before she blurted out. "But you didn't show up until the late 1800's. I've been looking for you for five centuries, how could I have missed you for so long?" She sounded genuinely upset that she had lost nearly five hundred years and he had been there that entire time.

"That's because you weren't looking in the right place, Ashildr."

"Where could I have looked? Did you somehow manage to make it to the new world when it was first discovered and that's how I missed you?"

He threw his head back with a laugh, finally feeling in control for the first time since she had walked into the hub. "I wish it had been as simple as that. No, you never would've found me because I was lying in an unmarked grave for nearly nineteen centuries."

She sat back, her hand flying to her forehead to still the sudden spinning of the room around her. This man, this immortal, had known pain and suffering the likes of which she could only imagine. His simple words were spoken with such a lack of emotion, she knew that he was most likely screaming in rage and anguish at just the thought of all those years spent underground. She needed to know more, she needed to know everything and she needed him to know everything about her as well. It was more of a compulsion now than it had ever been.

"How?"

Jack looked up at her question, his gaze flicking to Ianto who was standing by the door anxiously looking in to see if everything was all right. He nodded curtly but knew that he couldn't continue this conversation here, there was too much that both of them knew that could mess with timelines even worse than they already were. He had already made the decision to tell her the whole truth, since she was as much an aberration as he was and the Doctor hadn't seen fit to destroy either of them when he probably should have. So what if he found some comfort in the presence of another unwilling immortal who the Doctor had abandoned to fend for herself? He felt like he bloody well deserved it.

Pushing away from his desk, he walked over to the coat rack and pulled on his blue captain's coat. "Come on, let's go for a drink somewhere. I'll buy, but we're not finished talking by a long shot."

He held out his hand to her, his gaze dropping to the diamond and emerald brooch that she had pinned to her neck that had been his first clue that she might be more than met the eye.

She placed her hand in his firm grasp before rising to her feet, her gaze once more regal as she let it sweep over him from head to foot. "Still living in the past are we, Captain?"

He just grinned and bowed at the waist before motioning for her to precede him out of his office. "I could ask the same of you, Ashildr."

She just laughed and tossed her hair over her shoulder, her steps slow and measured as she swept past the startled Ianto and waited for Jack to join her side. "I preferred some centuries over others, but the year I got this brooch was by far one of my favorites. It's the year the Doctor came back and it finally all made sense."

Jack glanced over to Ianto, seeing the younger man betray no emotion whatsoever when he heard Ashildr's comments about having seen centuries. That cool aplomb was one of the reasons why Jack loved Ianto so much, and why with a single glance he knew that Ianto would destroy the recordings that he had just made.

Ianto had heard everything anyways so it was not like Jack was keeping secrets, but he didn't want to risk anyone else getting their hands on that recording. Too many people in the world already knew about the immortal Jack Harkness, they didn't need to know about Ashildr as well. Not if he had anything to say about it.

He held his arm out and she placed her small hand into the crook of his elbow, the two of them maintaining a charged silence that neither was quite yet willing to break. There would be time enough for admissions, and Jack had a feeling that this was only the beginning.


	4. Chapter 4

The sky had darkened significantly by the time Jack and Ashildr made their way out of Torchwood's little shop as the approaching storm had muted the rapidly fading daylight. The clouds hung low and heavy across the sky, it was not going to be long before they unleashed a deluge on the welsh countryside.

The two immortals walked across the square with a measured stride, the silence stretching between them until it was nearly a living thing.

Ashildr kept her hand tucked into the crook of Jack's arm, though she could feel the tension held barely in check within the man. His eyes were constantly moving as they made their way past the fountain and onto the street beyond. She knew that she had awakened a hunger within him that would not be easily assuaged, but she was not certain exactly what it was that he was expecting from her. Absolution maybe? Companionship? She knew what she wanted from him, but she wasn't sure if it was something that he would be ready or willing to share.

Jack led the way down a side street and towards a bar that was tucked next to a rather upscale restaurant as the area around the Millennium Centre was also a bustling tourist hub. He reached out to open the door, and held it for her so that she could precede him into the dim interior.

A loud crack of thunder echoed overhead just as Jack ducked into the bar, his gaze darting briefly to the windows where he saw sheets of rain suddenly begin to pelt the panes. The storm couldn't have suited his mood better and also guaranteed that the little bar would be quieter than usual.

He nodded to her and led the way to the bar where the bartender was already reaching under the counter for a snifter and a whiskey bottle. "Jack, you're here early!"

Jack grinned and waved in reply, his hand on Ashildr's elbow while she wisely maintained her silence. "Yeah, Frank. Bit of a slow day and I had an unexpected visit from an old family friend so I figured I'd bring her over for a drink."

The bartender, Frank, looked to Ashildr and smiled in greeting. "Any friend of Jack's is welcome here."

She pursed her lips and nodded in response, not quite sure what they were doing there and how they would be able to talk any more freely than in Torchwood but she otherwise maintained her silence.

"Actually, Frank. I was wondering if the back room was free tonight, I wanted to have a place to catch up privately and the office was just too formal."

"Sure Jack, it's always available for you."

Jack smiled in response before he nodded to Ashildr and reached back for his wallet to pull out several large bills. "We've got a lot to catch up on, could you bring a bottle of whiskey back and whatever she'll have to drink, then make sure we're not bothered back there."

Frank frowned when he saw Jack place the bills on the bar, shaking his head before he pushed the money back to Jack. "You know I'd been happy to put it on the slate for you, Jack. Besides I know how you can get going sometimes."

Jack just shook his head with a laugh, though there was a serious glint in his eyes. "And every time I come here, I tell you to not treat me any differently than any of your other customers. So just take the money, Frank."

Ashildr looked from Jack to Frank, the obvious affectionate frustration between the two of them showing that this was an old and tired argument.

"One of these days, I'm going to win this argument Jack."

Jack just chuckled good-naturedly and winked at Frank. "Maybe, Frank. Maybe."

Ashildr just shook her head at yet another glimpse into the strange immortal standing beside her before she turned back to Frank and ordered a bottle of merlot, taking Jack's cue that it was going to be a long night. "Actually, would you please include a jug of water with that? Talking can be such thirsty work."

"Sure thing, I'll be back in just a tick."

The two of them then left the bar and made their way down a short hallway and into a private dining room in the back. It was an upscale bar that obviously catered to a more affluent clientele, the dining room in the back was no different. It was a muted green color filled with two tables of six that could easily be rearranged for larger parties if needed.

Jack left the door slightly ajar before he shrugged out of his coat and tossed it across one of the chairs, motioning for her to do the same before he settled into a seat nearest the door.

Ashildr just stood still for a moment, letting her gaze roam around the room before she reached up and unpinned her broach and laid her cloak over another seat. She sat down, unnerved somewhat as the silence continued to stretch between them. He was studying her intently, but he seemed content to sit in silence for the time being.

Frank arrived with the bottle of whiskey and merlot as well as a pitcher of water and several glasses on a tray which he set in the middle of the table, his gaze flicking from Jack to his young friend before he then turned and left the room. The click of the door closing seemed to be the cue that Jack needed, causing him to rise to his feet so that he could turn the lock on the door.

"Why did you bring us here, Jack?"

Jack turned to look at Ashildr, letting out the breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding before he returned to his seat and poured both himself and Ashildr a drink.

"I've known Frank for quite a few years now and he always makes sure that I'm not bothered when I come here. I helped him and his family out of a spot of trouble a while back, and sometimes I find I just need some time to myself where I don't have to worry about anyone intruding. He's a good man and will make sure we're not bothered or monitored in anyway."

She took the wineglass when he offered it, unable to conceal the questioning look in her eyes when he spoke of needing to be alone from time to time. "Is it that much of a burden to you, Jack?"

Jack took a long drink from his snifter, his eyes sliding closed at the harsh bite of the liquor before he nodded. "Sometimes it can be, but then I'm sure you understand that completely."

She nodded quietly, her eyes growing distant as she thought back on all the sleepless nights she had endured in the past. "It's maddening, Jack. Sometimes I wonder when it will ever end, if it will ever end and sometimes I just want to run until I have nowhere left to run to. I did that once, ran away but it was still too early and I couldn't get very far."

Jack sat there quietly, listening to the sorrow that she couldn't contain and felt a corresponding ache in his own heart. "How many children have you lost Ashildr?"

She jerked at the question, her eyes flying to his before she sighed and took a long swallow of her wine. "I don't remember, Jack. It's been so many centuries since they died anyways."

Jack leaned forward, his eyes boring into her before he muttered. "Bullshit."

She looked away, her body betraying the tension that suddenly rose within her. She had told the Doctor once that her memories had faded over the centuries and that much was true, but she would never forget that fateful day when she found them dead from the plague. It had been a major turning point in her endless life, the point that had set her on the reckless path that had eventually collided with the doctor three centuries later.

"I lost three children, Jack. Three precious babies to the plague, and that's when I swore that I would never again let anyone close to me."

"I'm sorry, Ashildr. It never does seem fair does it? We live on, but those we loved fade away like so much smoke."

She laughed harshly at that comment, her trembling hand lifting her wineglass to her lips before she set it aside with a sigh. "I said that to the Doctor when he came back, when I first begged him to take me with him. The people around me, they fade like smoke and yet I endure forever. I truly have forgotten so much of my life, Jack. I have to write it all down in journals, then when I go back to read it, it's almost like it happened to someone else."

Jack arched a brow at her comment, wondering if it was because of the strange nature of his rebirth that he was cursed with such near perfect memory. She was forever dying and forever being repaired, but her mind was still that of a ninth century Viking and as such could only hold on to so much before it faded away. "I wonder if that would be preferable." He mused.

"It's not the same for you?"

Jack shook his head, his eyes sliding closed as he thought back on his long life. "No it's not, though I have forgotten most of the details of my life when I was mortal. I don't even remember what my father looked like anymore."

She leaned forward at the first clues about Jack's own strange immortality, her lips parted in her eagerness for more. "What happened Jack? You said it was an accident and that the Doctor didn't know."

Jack grimaced at her question, raising his glass to his lips and draining it dry before he reached for the bottle and refilled it nearly to the brim. He found himself rethinking his decision to tell her everything in his past, at least at this first meeting until he got to know her a little better. She already had knowledge of the Doctor and that he had a ship that travelled through time and space, and if she had hacked into the Torchwood files then she knew more about extraterrestrials than anyone outside of Torchwood did. He still had to be careful not to pollute the timeline with too much foreknowledge, though if he thought about it the Doctor was doing that all the time.

"It was an accident Ashildr. I had travelled with the Doctor for a little while and we had a run in with some Daleks in a space station. I was facing down three Daleks, trying to buy the Doctor time to do whatever it was that he was planning and they killed me." He knew that he was being deliberately vague when she had been extremely detailed, but he still couldn't bring himself to completely divulge everything in one shot. His training at the Time Agency was too ingrained in him even after all these centuries, and an immortal trapped on earth with the kind of foreknowledge he could give her could be too dangerous. Especially if she wasn't bound by the same code of conduct that he had tried to adhere to all throughout his long life on earth.

"I remember exactly what death felt like, that first death out of thousands and then I just woke up. I didn't find out how it had happened to me though for over a century when the Doctor finally came back."

Ashildr cocked her head at that comment, picking up on his choice of words and suddenly feeling another thing click into place. "He abandoned you too, didn't he?"

Jack merely nodded in reply, the subtle tick at the corner of his eye the only indication of his agitation. "He left me on that station as soon as the Daleks had been dealt with and it was up to me to make my way back to earth. I kind of overshot the mark and ended up in 19th century Cardiff though, where I had to live through the 20th century before he finally showed back up again. He actually tried to leave without even seeing me that second time, but I managed to catch up with him." Jack didn't elaborate on just where he had caught up with the Doctor, nor the events that had followed when they had returned from the end of the universe.

"So then how did it happen Jack?"

"It was a surge of Time Lord energy actually that revived me, but it was out of control and it brought me back forever. I can die, but I don't ever stay dead. No matter what is done to me, I always come back. It didn't take long for me to figure out that something had happened on that station, but it was the not knowing that nearly drove me insane that first century."

She sighed softly, once more feeling that resonance to her own life and her own suffering though his had been in totally different circumstances. "I don't know if I can be killed actually, Jack. The Doctor did say that I wasn't indestructible just that I wouldn't die. I've been too much of a coward honestly to test that theory too much, though I've been reckless many times in the past."

Jack threw his head back and laughed, unable to help himself when he heard the chagrin in her voice. "Thrill seeking to fill the time I take it?"

An impish grin was her only answer before she reached for the bottle of wine and filled her glass once more. "It was something of a hobby for a few centuries. The Doctor didn't approve when he discovered I was a highwayman."

Jack guffawed at that bold admission, but then it was so eerily similar to what he had done that he felt a little more of his armor slip. "I was a con artist actually, that's why I took the name Jack Harkness. He had just been killed in action, so I was able to rewrite his files and step seamlessly into his shoes."

"Was this after you were immortal?"

Jack shook his head with a laugh. "No actually it was before. It's how I met the Doctor in the first place, he was actually lured in by one of my more elaborate cons and ended up having to clean up my mess." Jack paused when he thought back on that time, how things had been so easy and straightforward as he'd hurtled through life with no seeming direction other than the next thrill. It wasn't really all that different from his life now, though the Doctor had somehow managed to instill a sense of duty into him. He grimaced at that thought. "I wasn't this much of a stand-up guy back then, that's for sure."

She couldn't help the laughter at the disgust in his tone, he truly looked appalled at that thought. "Oh I'm sure that you still can get up to plenty of trouble Captain Harkness."

He lifted his snifter to her in mock salute, his steel blue eyes flashing with mirth before he responded. "I like to think that trouble has a way of finding me."

"I'm sure that it does Jack. I'm curious though why you're being so deliberately vague with me when you already know that I know a lot about you and the Doctor."

Jack's gaze flew to hers, his eyes looking panicked and trapped for a moment before he let out of long sigh. "I have to be careful Ashildr. First off, I don't know you from Adam and you show up with knowledge that you shouldn't have both about me and the Doctor so I have to believe that at least you think you're telling the truth."

Ashildr opened her mouth to argue, but Jack silenced her with a quick shake of his head. "Let me finish, Ashildr. I didn't say that I don't believe that you believe what you're saying, but I need more proof. The Doctor has knowledge that could forever alter the future of this world, and he is very careful with that knowledge so that he doesn't pollute the timeline too much." Jack made a face at that. "Well, he tries not to pollute the timeline too much, but he's not always as successful as he would like. I too have knowledge that could greatly affect future events on earth as well so I have to adhere to the same principles that the Doctor does in regards to information."

She was surprised that he was being as candid as he was with her, but she was thankful at least that he wasn't dodging the question completely. "I know you're from the future Jack. It was in your files in the Torchwood database."

He grimaced at that reminder, having momentarily forgotten that she would have gotten into his files before he had had a chance to delete all references to his ramblings in the late 19th century when Torchwood had first conscripted him. When he took over Torchwood Three, he had meticulously scrubbed his files for any mention of those ravings and since the rest of Torchwood was dead or missing in action he had effectively eliminated all traces of his past indiscretions.

"Right, but you don't know exactly when?" He tested, knowing that Torchwood had never known which century had been his native time. He had been smart enough to at least hold that back when he had first come to earth.

"No Jack, I don't."

He nodded in response, surprised at the wave of relief that washed over him at her comment. "Let's just say that I'm from far enough in the future, that I would prefer to be careful about rewriting my own history. Besides, I'm going to get to live that future firsthand."

"Just as I got to live earth's history firsthand."

Jack smiled softly. "Exactly just like that. Now it looks like we'll both get to live that future together."

Ashildr looked to Jack with a soft sigh. "Will we now Jack? You still don't trust me."

"I've only just met you Ashildr. You're going to have to do a lot more to earn my trust, though I will grant that you have been remarkably candid with me. You're a relic from the past, you've lived through most of modern earth history." He continued with uncharacteristic bluntness, his gaze watching the effect his words had on Ashildr as she listened to his words with stoic disdain. "You are remarkable in that you have firsthand knowledge of events that historians can only dream about, but that knowledge won't change the course of earth's history. It won't shape events that could have ripple effects for centuries to come."

She sat listening to his harsh words, her jaw clenching and unclenching through she knew he was correct in his assumptions. She wanted so much more, she'd wanted it for over a thousand years and once again she was being denied. "There has to be more to it Jack. There has to be some purpose that we've been created, but I for one can't seem to figure out what it is. Yes I've lived through most of modern history and yes I know that my knowledge, or the knowledge contained in my journals won't shatter the world or change the future but I have to know that there's some reason for all of it." She was pleading with him now, her words were shaking when she feared that he would push her away just as the Doctor had when he had left that final time.

Jack's harsh gaze softened and he leaned forward to set his glass on the table in order to take her free hand in his. "I wish I had that answer for you Ashildr but I just don't. Yes I've lived longer than you have and I've seen things that you can't even imagine, but in all the endless searching I finally came to the conclusion that I had to find my own purpose or I really would go insane."

Her hand was trembling in his grasp and there was shimmer of tears in her eyes that she angrily tried to blink away. "Is protecting the earth your purpose Jack?"

"Yeah, I guess it is. Someone's got to do it and the Doctor can't always be here to take care of things. Humanity has got to learn how to stand on its own two feet in preparation for what's coming, I'm trying in my own way to help towards that end."

Ashildr leaned closer to Jack, her fingers tightening around his as her eyes suddenly locked on to his with an earnestness that surprised him. "Let me help Jack. I once told the Doctor that I would help protect the earth, but I've only been able to do so in little ways. I've helped the companions he's left behind from time to time, never letting them know who I was or why I was doing what I did but it's not enough. I know that I can do so much more and I want to be a part of it."

Jack pursed his lips thoughtfully at her suggestion, his mind whirling with all the possibilities that such a liaison could bring. He'd be able to keep a closer eye on her for one thing, and he could truly gauge her sincerity and her assertions first hand. The fact that she admitted to helping the Doctor's old companions eased some more of the concern that he had in regards to her motives. She needed purpose in her life again, perhaps he could help in that regard.

"On one condition Ashildr."

She nodded in acquiescence. "Name it first Jack before I agree."

"I want to see your journals, I want to see the history of the world through your eyes."

"That's hardly fair when you won't tell me much about yourself and your own history."

Jack cocked his head with a smirk, his hand reaching for his glass and lifting it to his lips before he continued. "That's because your history is my history, but my history is your future. The circumstances couldn't be more different Ashildr. That's my condition, take it or leave it."

She could tell that he was prepared to rise to his feet and leave right at that moment if she didn't answer correctly. She had planned to take him to her home anyways at some point so that she could share her history with him, so she was able to make a decision then and there. "Done. Tell me when and I'll take you there."

Jack raised his glass to hers, their glasses clinking in a toast before they settled down and spoke of their different experiences in the 20th century, light hearted stories that didn't touch on the Doctor or on anything else that they weren't ready to discuss.

Both couldn't shake the feeling that it was the tentative beginning of a potentially eternal friendship.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: For obvious reasons, I am waiting for the end of series 9 before really delving into current events with Jack and Ashildr but there is still plenty of back story to be told!

* * *

The silence in the hub was unnerving as Jack sat at his desk staring off into nothing. He had spent most of the night in that back room with Ashildr, talking to her about what she could remember from the past century or so in order to see if he could catch her in any obvious lie.

He couldn't explain why he had been so cautious with her when he had first felt an overwhelming urge to share everything with her, but some instinct had kicked in when they had walked to Frank's bar and he had always been one to listen to his gut.

She had said all of the right things, knew the right companions for the various Doctors but it was still strange that she had so many gaps in her memory when he had no such issue. It highlighted once again the difference in how they had each been made and he found himself wondering once again if that might not have been the better way. Some nights he wished for the blessing of forgetfulness, the never ending torment of his achingly long existence might be easier to bear if he could every once in a while forget the nightmares of the past.

The blaring of the alarm echoed through the hub and he jumped when he realized it was already eight am and that Ianto would most likely be worried about what had happened the night before. It didn't take him long to make his way to Jack's office, his appearance as always perfectly groomed though there was a certain air of uncertainty about him as he held two cups of coffee in his hands.

Ianto paused in the doorway, trying to gauge Jack's mood before while he stood rooted to the spot. Jack was sitting with both elbows braced against the desk and was fingering what looked to be a business card of some sort in his hand, his eyes had risen when Ianto had come into the room but he had otherwise not acknowledged his presence.

Ianto couldn't forget the look of hunger that he had seen on Jack's face when he had realized that the woman who sat across from him was another immortal, that desperate need to share in the agony of the ages and it had once again reminded Ianto of how very lonely Jack would unfortunately always be.

Yes there were flashes of brilliance, like the time that they were able to spend together now where they could share as much of a normal life as was possible working for such a crazy institution like Torchwood but it hurt Ianto to know that all too soon his death would be just another to add to the long list of the dead. It was why he always tried his hardest to make Jack laugh, to help him to let go of some of the burdens that he carried if even for a while. Sometimes it worked, but he worried that this would not be one of those times.

"Are you just going to stand there till the coffee gets cold?"

Jack's voice jerked Ianto out of his morose thoughts, the smile that instantly turned up the corners of his mouth were enough to force Ianto into motion. He made his way to the desk and perched a hip on the edge of it before setting Jack's coffee down in front of him, his gaze dropping to the card that was lying face up on his desk.

Jack took the coffee, his gaze following the downward flick of Ianto's eyes before they travelled back up to lock with his own. "How'd the talk go?"

"It was intriguing, frustrating and infuriating all at the same time to be honest. There are so many holes in her memory that it's hard to tell what is true." Jack lifted the cup to his lips, replaying their parting words in his head over and over again. She had handed him a very expensive embossed card, much like a calling card that you would have seen at the turn of the 20th century with merely a name and an address on it.

He had since been researching everything he could find out about this Lady Me as she called herself and the results had only troubled him even more. She hadn't been as circumspect about her movements as she had thought she had been, but it still confounded Jack that she had managed to stay off of everyone's radar for as long as she had. It was almost like someone else was helping her.

"Is she telling the truth though, Jack? Is she an immortal like you?"

Jack shook his head with a sigh then he reached over to his vortex manipulator and began to play with the dials on the device, fingers tapping a complex series of commands before a holographic medical scan appeared hovering over the desk.

"She's definitely human or at least was at one point." Ianto pushed off the edge of the desk so that he could better see the medical scan that Jack had been able to obtain of the woman who called herself Ashildr. The readings all fell within the norm for a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. It was however the shining red dot in her head that caused Ianto to lean forward with a frown.

He reached out and deftly manipulated the image, having long since grown comfortable utilizing the advanced technology from Jack's vortex manipulator. He zoomed into that glow and was surprised to see tendrils spreading out through her entire body. It seemed that the red wisps had invaded every organ and had even seeded themselves into her blood, where the energy looked to be carried in the very cells of her body. "What the hell is that?"

Jack scowled softly as he gazed at the scan before he shook his head and shut the image down. "That is the source of her immortality. It is alien in origin. She had mentioned the species name, the Mire and I did a little digging with some of my sources. They haven't been to earth in this time period as of yet, at least not that we knew of but now we know that they visited earth in the 9th century and some future incarnation of the Doctor was there to deal with them."

He pushed back from the desk with a frustrated sigh, crossing his arms over his desk and kicking his feet up before he let himself look up at Ianto with an expectant raise of his brow.

Ianto was thinking long and hard, trying to remember everything that Jack had told him of the Time Lord as well as everything that he had learned of the man in the few brief times that he had met him. He did not at all seem like one who would ever want to repeat the mistake that had been made with Jack, but then obviously something had happened to change his mind. "Did she remember why the Doctor made her an immortal? It seems to be anathema to everything you've told me about him over the years."

Jack snorted in reply, his hands rising up to rub his eyes as he tried to focus on the enigma that was Ashildr. "That's just it Ianto. The Doctor didn't make me, Rose did when she had absorbed the heart of the Tardis. He said that she didn't know how to control the power that she had absorbed and so had brought me back forever, but that when he drained that power out of her he had also destroyed the only chance I ever had of getting back to normal." Jack's jaw was clenched as he struggled with the emotion that he still felt when he thought of the conversation he had had with the Doctor at the end of the universe, when the last of his hopes to ever be mortal again had been so well and truly dashed.

He had heard the regret in the Doctor's voice that he couldn't fix him, and so he had felt that the Doctor had been asking for his forgiveness. His invitation to later travel with the Doctor had been the final expression of his sorrow for ever calling him wrong, but he couldn't leave Torchwood and now especially he couldn't leave Ianto.

Ashildr had called the mortals around them mayflies, she had said her version of the Doctor had referred to them as such and that she had adopted that term as it was fitting. Jack had been shocked when he had heard that, the callousness that such words displayed showed that her version of the Doctor was a man that Jack wasn't sure he would ever be able to understand. It sounded like however long it had been for the Doctor, he had evolved once more into the unreachable, incredibly alien being that the Time Lords of old had been.

"I can't begin to understand why the Doctor would deliberately inflict this on another being, even though I was not directly his fault, I was definitely created because of his involvement in my life. I don't know if we'll ever know really, but that's neither here nor there. There's something else going on here that I can't quite put my finger on."

Ianto grabbed the chair across from the desk, hiding his smile as he saw the look of determination on Jack's face as the game seemed to be afoot. "Well I would think the biggest question would be, why did she wait over a century to contact you Jack? She said that she had tracked you for most of the 20th century before deciding to come and see you. Why now all of the sudden?"

Jack's answering grin was positively diabolical. "That's why I love you Ianto. You always ask the hard questions. Why did she wait indeed? I couldn't get a straight answer out of her except for some rubbish of the fact that I wasn't ready. Which I could tell immediately was utter bullshit. With her horrible memory, she has to reread her journals often so that she can even remember certain events, I should have long since faded from her memory. Unless there was something else that was driving her. I need to find out what it is, because she was far too interested in the Doctor and his whereabouts for me to be entirely comfortable that she only wants a family reunion."

Ianto's gaze drifted back down to the card on his desk. "Is that her address?"

Jack picked the card back up, fingering the expensive stock and print for a moment before he deftly flicked it across the desk to Ianto. "Yes it is, one of them anyways. She says she has a place in London as well that she spends some time in. Though she obviously keeps that place under an alias as I couldn't find any trace of anyone remotely near to her name or description on any property records in London."

"You know better than anyone that property records can be forged Jack."

Jack just nodded his head with a laugh. "My past as a con artist catching up with me again it seems."

Ianto cocked his head at that comment, holding the card to his nose for a moment before he asked. "Do you think she's trying to pull a con?"

"If she is, she's not doing a very good job at it. I'm not sure though. I wanted to trust her instantly simply because we both have been cursed by knowing the Doctor, now I am wondering just what it is she wants with me. It's definitely not my devilish good looks." Jack finished with a playful pout.

Ianto just rolled his eyes before he set the card back on the desk. "You're planning on going to visit her aren't you Jack?"

Jack's steel blue eyes rose to Ianto's, the tension in the young man's voice was easy to pick out. "I am. I want to see these journals of hers, I want to see if I can pick anything else out. If her journals are as extensive as she claims they are AND her memories are as bad as she says, I may find something that she has forgotten to exorcise."

"Do you want backup?"

Jack shook his head. "Not this time Ianto. I need to gain her trust this time around. I may be jumping at shadows and if I am then I would like to maybe have her liaise with Torchwood, especially if she does have a place in London. There's too much activity in London for my liking and we just can't keep an eye on it and the rift with how depleted our resources are."

Ianto nodded though he hadn't really expected any different answer. He knew that Jack was going in with his eyes wide open and he truly was the only one who would be able to spot anything that might be amiss. "I'll be on the comms if you need me Jack. Do you want me to tell Gwen where you've gone?"

Jack paused for a moment before he nodded. "Tell her what's happened and that I'm going to investigate it. In the meantime, I want you to research the title transfer history of that property in Gloucester. It's too close to Cardiff to be entirely a coincidence and I want to see if we can pinpoint exactly when she bought the property."

He stood up and slid open the top drawer in his desk, pulling his gun out and double checking that it was loaded before he slipped it into the holster on his side. "We will operate under the assumption that she is exactly what she states and that she is more than 1300 years old, but that her intentions towards us and the Doctor are uncertain and we will treat her as a possible threat. Should she come liaise with Torchwood, we will restrict her access though I know that she has master hacking skills. She doesn't have any experience with the algorithms from the rift technology that we have for encryption, so we will lock everything under the alien encryptions should we get to that point."

Ianto nodded and rose to his feet with Jack, moving around the desk to grab his coat for him so that he could help him shrug it on. His hands tightened around Jack's shoulders for a moment before he leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss against the back of Jack's neck. "You be careful out there Jack. I know she can't keep you dead for long, but as we all know there are far worse things than death."

Jack paused when he felt the brush of Ianto's lips against his neck, turning suddenly to grab the young man and press his lips to his in a searing kiss that spoke all the promises that Jack could never bring himself to say. He let his forehead rest against Ianto's for a moment more, his eyes closed as he sought the peace that so many times eluded him before he entered into a potentially dangerous situation. "I'll come back Ianto. I came back after two thousand years, you're not getting rid of me that easily."

Ianto just smiled in response before pulling back and assuming his proper role so that Jack could walk into the unknown with his head held high and his heart unburdened with unnecessary worries. "I'll keep the channels open Jack and I'll bring Gwen in to help."

Jack nodded curtly to Ianto, settling back into the roles that they both were far too comfortable assuming before he turned on his heel and made his way down into the Torchwood garages.


	6. Chapter 6

The drive to Gloucester was filled with Ianto muttering into the earpiece in Jack's ear, keeping him up to date on the title searches on Ashildr's property. Gwen had arrived at the hub only 20 minutes after Ianto had called him and she had had no compunction about letting Jack know just how she felt about him swanning off without proper backup.

He couldn't explain why he knew that he needed to visit Ashildr's estate alone, she hadn't made any such demand when she had given him the address but there was something in the set of her jaw that made him realize she would not be best impressed if he had come in with the cavalry. As it was, he ordered Gwen to begin to cross reference some of the stories that Ashildr had told him with historical documents that were available to them. Most specifically he wanted her to track down everything she could on the hundred years war as well as the tales of highwaymen from the 1600's when she claimed to have met the Doctor for a second time.

Historical texts could be painfully inaccurate and were more often than not filled with so much hyperbole that historians sometimes just assumed that the naturally superstitious nature of people that lived during those times would have them jumping at simple events that science would later be able to explain away. Jack knew from experience that many times what seemed to be hyperbole was actually rooted in fact and that to the trained eye it would leave a trail of breadcrumbs whose ultimate destination was the truth.

He had used many such historical texts in just such a manner in the past, tracked many of the Doctor's movements through the centuries in his various incarnations when he wasn't visiting modern times. Jack tapped his fingers nervously on the steering wheel as he made the turn on to the A40 just outside Gloucester, his eyes scanning the large hedges and fields before he found the address he was looking for and he made the turn into the long shaded drive.

He saw the cameras mounted on the posts as he drove through the large gates, his eyes raised to stare directly into the lens so that there could be no doubt he knew that she was watching. The black SUV slowly made its way down the slightly rutted drive, the dirt of the road was more overgrown then it should have been if this had been Ashildr's main base of operations.

He followed the winding path a little farther through a small copse of trees before he was able to spot the manor house directly ahead of him. It wasn't an overly large estate and it had a slightly rundown look about it, but there were obvious signs that there had been some fairly intense activity around the grounds recently.

The garden beds were all tended and prepared for the approaching winter, rose bushes were wrapped in burlap and there were signs of fresh repairs on some of the outer walls. Either Ashildr hadn't owned the place long, or she hadn't been in residence for many years in order to allow the place to fall into such a state of disrepair.

He pulled the SUV to a stop in the round drive, turning the engine off and letting his eyes wander over the windows that were on this side of the property. He saw one of the curtains on the upper floor twitch before being pulled closed and he suppressed the smile at the obvious gesture. She had wanted him to see her, that or she was even more sloppy then he had thought.

He reached up to his earpiece, keying the microphone so that it would remain open without the need to hold down the button. "I'm here now, any updates?"

"Jack the manor was just sold to Ashildr last year, but there's something strange about the transaction. The more I dig the stranger it gets. I've only managed to go back about 200 years so far, but it looks like it is sold every 40 years without fail. An estate agent is never used and all the documentation is handled through a small legal firm outside Cardiff. The solicitor is not listed on any of the transfer documentation which is very strange in and of itself, but it seems that no one ever flagged the transactions and they all went through without any question."

Jack mulled that information over, his fingers drumming a faint staccato on the steering wheel before he asked. "Who did she buy the property from, Ianto?"

"That's just it Jack, I don't know. The names have been redacted from the documentation once they were filed."

Jack grinned as he looked up towards the front door, Ashildr was standing in the doorway with a dark red cloak wrapped about her shoulders in order to ward off the chill of the morning. Her eyes locked with his and with an inquisitive arch of her brow, she stood waiting for him to get out of the car. "Clever girl, she's been covering her tracks. I'd be willing to bet real money that she has been selling it to herself every 40 years in order to maintain appearances, but I can't be sure. I need you to go to the registrar's office and look up the actual transfer deeds to be sure Ianto, but not before I get you a sample of her handwriting."

He made sure to speak with his head ducked so that Ashildr would be unable to read his lips, a motion that he could tell didn't please her in the least if the glare was any indication. Too bad. He found himself thinking.

"Jack, I've been doing some digging on the hundred year's war and there are some paintings that might be of interest of people at the time. I think Ashildr or someone who looked significantly like her was indeed a part of the final battle, but I can't be sure as the images we captured on CCTV were very poorly distorted." Gwen's voice suddenly sounded through the comm. "I'll keep digging but we need more data Jack if we're going to corroborate her story and honestly, digging through old documents may be more of a wild goose chase than flat out asking her."

"Oh I plan to ask her Gwen. I'm going to be digging through her journals, so make sure all transmissions are recorded from now on. I'm keeping this channel open so that between the three of us, we'll figure out just what Lady Me is up to."

Jack then looked up and met Ashildr's gaze, his lips curving into the devilish smile that he knew had the greatest effect, before he got out of the SUV and made his way across the gravel drive to the steps.

"Ashildr."

She nodded her head in acknowledgement, the diamond and emerald brooch once more glittering at the high neckline of the dress she was wearing beneath the cloak. "Jack." She responded just as formally. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to ever get out of the car."

He swept her hand into his, the roguish glint in his eyes flashing before he pressed a gentlemanly kiss to the back of her hand. "Just making sure my team is staying busy, you know how mortals can be always flitting from one thing to another. Always in such a rush."

It was a calculated statement on his part, but it played right into her mayflies comment and would help him gauge which way the wind was blowing.

She merely smiled tightly in response before turning to head back inside. "Not outside, there's always the possibilities of ears about."

Jack pulled his overcoat tight around himself before he looked around the grounds one more time and followed her into the dark entryway.

"I've sent the workers and servants away for the time being. I had a feeling we would want privacy for this meeting. I do have several servants who I do not have to worry about as they are unable to fully read or write, poor things are placed with me by several charities I have done work for in the past. They come to me for experience and life skills but they will never be able to fully function in the real world."

The smell of dust and cleaning agents assaulted his nostrils as soon as he stepped through the door, his eyes adjusting to the dim interior to see that many paintings on the walls were still shrouded in sheets. The massive chandelier above his head was also swathed in blankets though judging by the ladders leaning against the wall, the cleaning would soon begin in this part of the home.

"As I'm sure you can understand, my criterion for servants are rather specific. The last thing I need is a nosy servant digging into my journals out of curiosity."

Jack listened to her words with a soft frown, his gaze moving to the various doors that stood partially ajar off the main entrance. There were far too many windows and doors in this place for it to be easily defended, so he assumed that it was meant solely as a showpiece in order for her to reintegrate into society if she had in fact been hiding away the last few decades. "I can understand the need for secrecy, I personally have never kept servants and usually stayed within Torchwood where my immortality was a well-known fact. I found it easier because then I could more easily gauge any potential enemies."

She merely nodded in response to his words, her footsteps echoed in the large foyer as she led the way deeper into the house before coming to a part of the house that was blazing with light and warmth. It had the look of a study with a massive fireplace before which sat a large wooden desk and several stuffed armchairs. Ashildr was standing by the desk, her fingers tapping lightly against the age worn wood before she slipped the cloak from her shoulders and draped it over the back of one of the chairs. "Would you care for a drink Captain Jack?"

He shook his head in polite refusal of the offer, his gaze traveling from one end of the study to the other before he let the dismay he was feeling show on his face. "Are these it then?"

Ashildr just laughed softly, holding her hand out for his coat so that she could hang it up on the coat rack but he merely pulled the coat tight and stepped away from her outstretched hand. "I'll keep the coat, thanks."

She shrugged and settled into the chair nearest to the fireplace, the dancing flames doing little to dispel the lingering chill in the pit of Jack's stomach. "Suit yourself Jack, though I already know that you came armed. It's not like you're really hiding anything from me."

His eyes locked with hers, the tight smile he flashed in response was all the answer she needed though he did shrug out of the coat after her prodding. Her gaze flicked to the holster at his waist, her lips pursed in thought before she looked up into his piercing blue eyes.

"You have me at a disadvantage Jack. I know you don't stay dead, whereas I am not so sure about me. Do you really think I would invite you here in order to kill you? What would be the point of that, especially seeing as I'd have to keep killing you and so would be wasting an inordinate amount of time with even trying?"

Jack settled into the chair opposite Ashildr's, his legs crossed while he steepled his fingers together in thought. "It pays to be cautious Ashildr. You have to admit that you've been deliberately vague on many things that I have asked you about."

Ashildr shrugged, her gaze drifting to the rows of bookshelves that surrounded them before she looked back to him once more. "That's why I invited you here Jack. I don't remember most of the time as you already know, so I figured if anything my journals might help you make sense of my story. I find myself drawn to them from time to time, it's like reading a grand adventure really at times and it is so hard to remember that these things have actually happened to me at some point in the past."

Jack couldn't stop the sympathetic wince when he heard the longing in her voice, when she spoke of the loss of her memories as if it were merely a handbag that had been misplaced. He found himself once again almost envying her the chance to reinvent herself every few centuries, the complete lack of history was like the slate being wiped clean so that a new chapter could begin. "So you forget everything? Or just certain things?"

She cocked her head at that question, her eyes going distant before she murmured. "Some things remain, like the languages I have learned over the centuries. I've done research over the years that shows language skills are housed in a different part of the brain then cognitive memories. And I could never forget the Doctor, though the details of my two encounters with him blur from time to time unless I go back to those journals and read them again."

Jack looked up, his nostrils flaring as he realized he had the perfect starting point. "Which journals are those?"

She waved a hand behind her, pointing towards the bookshelves closest against the wall. "I have them all organized in chronological order, so the first journals are at that end of the room. Each book shelf holds about thirty years so I'm sure you can figure out where in the timeline my second meeting would be, most likely down at that end of the study." She said as she waved her hand in the opposite direction.

"I guess I'll start from the beginning then and work my way through."

Ashildr arched a brow before she reached into her drawer and drew out a box of latex gloves that she tossed at him. He caught it with a puzzled frown though he couldn't help but quip. "I do usually come prepared Ashildr."

She just snorted and rolled her eyes, the innuendo not at all lost on her but completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. She was too bored with that side of things to even notice the light flirting beneath the gruff suspicious exterior. "Some of these manuscripts are well over a thousand years old Jack. I would rather protect them from the oils on anyone's hands as they are handled, because the pages are getting quite delicate. I supposed I could transcribe them into fresh journals so that the memories are not lost, but I simply don't have the time to do so. I must keep a constant account of my day to day life as it flows now, and there is no one that I would trust to undertake such a project. So I handle them with care and merely ask that you do the same."

He pulled two black gloves out of the box and snapped first one then the other onto his hand before he nodded slightly in her direction. "Understood Ashildr."

"One other thing Jack. Can you read Old Norse?"

Jack shook his head. "No I can't."

"Then you might want to start on the tenth bookshelf as that is when I learned to read and write in English, otherwise you won't be able to understand what is in those journals."

She sat there watching the expression on his face, the smile that he flashed somehow didn't reach his eyes though she wondered just when in the previous evening he had become so mistrustful of her. It had been a sudden shift when they had left Torchwood and gone to the bar of his friend Frank, but he had suddenly closed himself off and begun to press her for what she remembered of the last century.

She had known that it would take time for him to fully trust her, if he ever possibly could and she had thought that she had begun to make some progress but it seemed all that progress had been lost. He had asked her about the Doctor repeatedly, about the conversations that they had had together and what exactly he had said when she had sat with him in that tavern after the threat of the Leonians had been dealt with. She was lucky she had read her journals with those two encounters just the previous evening as she had known that Jack especially would be keen to know everything that had happened between the two of them, but it had still felt as though that conversation had been held with a complete stranger.

She desperately wanted to get off of this planet, it was driving her mad as with every passing century it felt more and more like a prison. She knew enough about Jack to know that he was from the future and that he had somehow travelled to earth after the Doctor had abandoned him at some point in the future, and she needed his help to finally be able to escape its confines. Perhaps there were beings out there who could help her augment her memory so that she wouldn't need to spend so much of her time in constant review of her journals all to remember a life that seemed to be less memorable by the day.

She knew there were other forces at work where he and the Doctor were concerned, she had glimpsed the current persona of the Doctor travelling to Torchwood several times and so she knew that she was still years away from the time when her version of the Doctor would be visiting earth. She couldn't exactly trust him though as he had abandoned her without a second thought, much as he had Jack when he had first created him.

She had followed up on two of his most recent companions, Martha Jones and Donna Noble though they hadn't known who she was at the time and had merely thought her a young girl that had wandered into their paths. Donna had been searching for the Doctor though and had seemed rather focused on her task, so Ashildr had left her well enough alone though she had seen the both of them together at a later date.

She needn't have hidden herself from this current Doctor as she knew that he wouldn't know who she was, but there was still that thread of caution that had kept her off of anyone's radar for centuries. So she had merely observed and made notes of their movements, before returning back to her travels around the world.

Jack had made his way back to the first set of bookshelves despite her warnings that he wouldn't be able to understand what they said, his hands had reached up and plucked the first one down and even now he was leaning against the wall carefully flipping through each ancient page before moving on to the next.

She knew that his team was monitoring him through his headset, she would have been surprised if he hadn't taken such a precaution. She had also seen the level of tech in the Torchwood hub and thought that he probably even now was having some of those pages translated over the comm.

She sat back, staring pensively into the dancing flames while she wrestled with the strange sense of violation she felt to have a virtual stranger perusing her precious journals. It had been many years since she had read those early journals, mostly because the blind idealism she had felt in the early years of her immortality was enough to make her feel decidedly ill. It had all seemed so grand in the beginning, the sense of adventure that very quickly died as century turned into endless century.

Rising to her feet with a soft growl, she called out to Jack. "I'll go make us some tea Jack. Call if you need anything."

Jack looked up as Ashildr left the room, his brow furrowed at the look on her face. It wasn't that she was hiding something, but he could tell that she was suddenly very uncomfortable with his presence in her home.

The handwriting in these early journals was hesitant, almost as if she hadn't known how to write very well when she had begun to record the events of her life. He wondered if she had known even then that her memories would begin to fade like so much smoke or if she had just wanted to keep a written record in order to remind herself that she wasn't insane.

The pages were a heavy parchment that had obviously been treated and retreated over the centuries though the ink was beginning to fade in some places, the Old Norse words flowing across the page in an unstoppable tide. He was taking pictures of the pages in her journal and sending them through to Torchwood, but he could tell just by the type of writing medium that Ashildr was nearly as old as she claimed to be.

Her handwriting continued to improve through the next dozen or so journals until it settled into a comfortable scrawl that seemed to race across the page in an energetic flow from one day to the next. He wished he could understand what the words were saying, but he could tell from the occasional blots on the parchment they were not all happy memories that she was recording.

He was looking for clues that would trip her up, little telltale signs like massive changes in handwriting or the wrong sort of medium for the time that she claimed but so far each page was like a little snapshot in history. If the contents hadn't been so damning, he could think of several historians who would have been beside themselves with glee to have such beautifully preserved pages from a time centuries gone now.

It looked like the parchment had been originally in scroll form from what he could tell about the binding of the books and the flow of the words over the page as there were unusual breaks in the spacing of the words that denoted they had been cut and pieced together into this journal rather beginning as a bound book.

Ianto was already translating the pages that he had sent to him via text, but he knew that it would be days before the contents would be fully deciphered. There were several leading experts in the ancient Scandinavian languages, but he couldn't easily let them know where or how he had come by these manuscripts.

He would most likely call in a few favors from his contacts at Oxford University, he knew that three of the staff members there in particular were fluent in that ancient language and one of them at least knew the importance of discretion.

Feeling that he had established a good baseline for Ashildr's beginnings, he began to work his way through the next nine bookshelves. Grabbing journals at random to peruse the contents of the page and verify that the writing style and writing medium was consistent with the time frame that she mentioned before moving on the next book. She had marked the outside of her journals with the corresponding years though it was obvious that she had done so in some sort of code so that it wouldn't be so readily apparent what the contents were.

She had come back into the room with a tray with a tea pot and two cups as well as a plate of sandwiches that caused Jack's stomach to growl lightly, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since he'd left Cardiff.

Her gaze was hunted when he made his way back to the desk, her fingers drumming nervously on the armrests of her chair though she made sure there was no other sign of her inward trepidation.

"Well Jack? Do you believe me now?"

He poured helped himself to a sandwich and a sip of the tea that she had just poured before he sat back in his seat and regarded her with hooded eyes. "The jury's still out on that one Ashildr, but those books are consistent with what you have told me so far. I do have a question though, how did you come across so much parchment in the tenth and eleventh centuries? It wasn't exactly a common item."

Ashildr's face scrunched up at the question, her gaze falling distant before she muttered a soft curse and got to her feet. Her dress swished angrily about her ankles as she made her way back to the first bookshelf and pulled two journals down.

Coming back to the desk and setting the journals carefully to the corner well away from the teapot, she snapped on two black gloves and began to flip through the thick pages with a soft sigh. Her eyes scanned the contents of each page briefly before she moved on to the next page then smiled when she had found what she was looking for. "I was the storyteller in my village when I was mortal Jack, as such I was also tasked with keeping account of its history and so would have learned the art of making parchment myself. It looks like I had a standing arrangement with the blacksmith for hide so that I could prepare my own sheets of parchment and record my stories."

Jack was flabbergasted when he saw firsthand the fact that she truly did not remember anything about that early part of her strange immortal life. He felt a stab of sympathy at the thought of going through life, never remembering where you had been and not knowing where you were going but just continuing to exist because you had no other choice.

It was the first time since he had arrived at her manor that he felt a little of his distrust melt away when he realized the very real hell that her life had been for the last thirteen hundred years and he found that he could never again envy the fact that she would so soon forget the worst of her pain and sorrow.

It was like having your spirit and soul ripped out with each passing year, knowing that you were losing something so very precious but unable to even remember what made it so precious until it was gone forever only to be remembered in the pages of a forgotten book.

"You really do forget everything don't you Ashildr?"

She raised her gaze to lock onto his troubled steel blue eyes, her breath catching for a moment when she heard the very real sympathy in his voice before she angrily shook her head. "I don't need your pity Jack. I make do as I need to and I go back to read when I forget something or a reread of one of my journals refers to a previous event. I have even had my share of adventures over the years, but now is when it has really gotten interesting. I can feel change in the wind Jack and I want to be a part of that change."

Jack simply grunted in response to her words, his own thoughts in regards to the twenty first century a tightly guarded secret to anyone who was not a part of Torchwood. He knew that there was change on the wind, this was the century when it all changed after all but he was still hesitant about telling her too much until he had a chance to delve more into her journals. "You're not wrong about the change in the wind Ashildr, all we can do really is prepare for it the best way we can and be there to help the Doctor should he ever need us."

He watched her reaction very closely to those words, wondering once again what her intentions towards the Doctor were. She merely gazed pensively back at him, having made no bones about the fact that she was still uncertain about the Doctor or his motives but she could not deny that he had saved the earth more times than anyone could properly remember.

"Only time will really tell Jack. But in the end, I think you will find that we are both on the same side."

He finished the last of his sandwich, grinning softly when he saw the look of surprise on her face when she noticed that he had demolished the entire platter, at least he had managed to catch her off guard for once. With a playful grin, he pulled two fresh gloves out of the box and snapped them back onto his hands before he rose to his feet once more.

"Only time will tell Ashildr, only time will tell. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to dive back in. I've got thirteen hundred years of history to catch up on."

She blew out a frustrated breath, wondering just what it would take to convince him before she called in response. "Take your time Jack, I have nothing scheduled except work on the manor for the next few days. I've prepared a room for you should you need to rest."

"I don't need any sleep, so you don't need to worry about me. I'll just be here learning more about you."

She scowled at the playful note in his voice before rising to her feet and storming out of the study, her stride carrying her through the foyer and up the stairs before Jack let out the breath he had been holding.

"Gwen have you gotten all that?"

"Yes Jack, I have. Keep going through her journals, Ianto and I will keep digging on this end and let you know if we find anything."

He sighed softly when he let his gaze travels down the length of the study, the sheer enormity of the task ahead of him was slightly overwhelming before he whispered. "I'm going to be here for a while, Gwen. There are literally hundreds of journals and I feel like I'm looking for a needle in a haystack."

"Don't worry Jack, we'll keep you on track." Ianto's soft voice whispered in his ear, the soft welsh accent soothing some of his agitation while focusing him once more on the task ahead.

"All right then, let's keep going. I'm getting into the 1100's now and the journals are starting to switch from Norse to English so it should go faster from here on. I will be making comments aloud as I come across things, but I think the most important journals will be after the Doctor visited again in the 1600's."

There was a chorus of agreement from the other end of the line, and then they all settled down to focus on their respective tasks. Jack didn't know what he was looking for, but he had a feeling that it would jump out at him the moment he stumbled across it.

Considering the sheer magnitude of the information before him, he had no other choice but to blindly hope for some luck.


End file.
